DCPS School Board Meeting - April 8, 2025

001testing Denwood public schools. Testing Denwood Public Schools. case and uh we appreciate your coming this afternoon. So um Madam Chair, I move that we uh reconvene in open session at this time. Second. It has been moved and second that we reconvene in open session. Whereas the Denwy County School Board has convened a closed session on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. And whereas paragraph 2.2-3712 2-3712 of the code of Virginia requires a certification by this school board that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia law. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Denwitty County School Board hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge, only such business matters as were identified in the motion convening the

002closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the school board. Dr. Elaine J. Pearson, District 1. I certify. Dwayne G. Walker, District 2, I certify. Barbara T. Pitman, District Three, I certify. Mary M. Benjamin, District 4. I certify. Jason El Brown II, District 5. I certify. Madame Chair, all of certified. Thank you. I ask you now if you would stand and um do the pledge of allegiance with our students. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Are there any amendments to the agenda? No, ma'am. There are no amendments to the agenda. So, now we will go to close session and approve uh the approval of personnel. Madam chair, we need to what

003what did I miss? We have to approve the agenda. Madam Chair, I move that we approve the agenda as presented. Second. is removed and second that the agenda is approved. All those in favor I eyes have it now to close session. Approval of personnel file list. Madam chair, I move that we accept the personnel list as presented. Second. It has been moved and second that we accept the personnel list as presented. All of those in favor? I I have it. The personnel list is approved. Approval of student matter. Madam chair, I move that we uphold the recommendation of the administration and long-term student suspend student number LT-0425-1. Second. It has been moved and second that we long-term suspend student number LT-0425-1. All those in favor use the usual sign. I any nays? I student matters

004is approved. Consent agenda expenditure reports. Madam chair, I move that we approve the expenditure reports. Second. It has been moved and second that we approve the expenditures report as reported. All of those in favor I I eyes have it. The expenditure report is accepted. Madam chair, I move that we approve the minutes presented for March 11th as well as March 25th of this year as they were presented. Second. It has been moved and second that the minutes of March 11th, 2025 and March 25th, 2025 be accepted. All of those in favor use the usual sign. I eyes have it. The minutes are approved. Recognitions. Yes, Miss Benjamin. We're going to start this evening with the Denwitty High School and Mr. Garn is going to come forward. Thank you. Uh, first of all, I want to

005say greetings to everyone. Uh, to our board chair, Miss Benjamin, to all sitting board members, uh, to our board clerks, to our student representatives, to all Denwitty County Public School staff, uh, and parents and, uh, students. Uh, I'm very excited um, and elated to, uh, have our students come and show you a few of our highlights. Now, I promise you it will not be as long as last year. If you were here, you all know about that. We took up most of the board meeting um because we are the largest school. We did narrow uh our presentation this year. But I do want to say there are so many things to celebrate at Denwity High School. We could not put it all uh into this presentation or we could we could not present it all

006in this meeting. Um one good thing about my students, they can take care of themselves for the most part. For the most part. So, at this time, I'm going to turn it over to uh Imani Mclofflin, who is a senior, who is also a student rep. I also want to say this, she does not know this, but a special highlight is that our student uh support specialist, uh Miss Gibbs, is now Dr. Gibbs. Congratulations to her. Good evening everyone. I would like to start by saying that I may be a little biased, but I definitely will say that this is my favorite presentation. And I am so excited for you all to hear about what our different clubs, our different sports, and our academic areas are doing because we really are doing so much. And

007there's just it's just so much that you can say about Dwey High School. We're always doing something. Just going to talk a little bit about the choir here. Never mind. [Music] We're going to start about talking about what our English department is doing in preparation for SOS and we would like patients KS to come up and talk a little bit about that. Good afternoon. I'm just going to talk a little bit about how we did a little prep on SOS this year. So, here's a few pictures on our groups that we had for our so prep. Um, some of the teachers, they assigned us into groups on all different grade levels. I think it was 9th, 10th, and 11th. And we were assigned to groups. We rotated throughout the class period. We had read prompts,

008different prompts throughout the SOS that they had. I'm sure some of them were actually on the SOS. So that's pretty good that we had like real practice on that and we had some questions on those. Some of the questions included three parts thesis statement and coming up with reasons for being against or not against the um prompt and we had grammar worksheets that we completed on. And we also it was actually a competition on which group was the fastest on how well we completed it. And yeah, we worked on a team. We worked as a team and we didn't leave anybody out. We make sure that everybody in the group agreed on our answers and make sure that everybody was included. Okay. So now we want to present our students with their 3D farms and

009we want you to see these generals at work. So I would like to introduce Miss Lindberg to come up and introduce the three students who will be showcasing these 3D farms. Good evening. I'm Miss Lindberg and I brought with me Kayla, Sarah, and um of course I'm going to draw a blank here. um if they'll stand up. I'm going to show you a couple things real quick. Um so what we start with is they have to pick a livestock and they're going to research their facilities they use. They have to look at the options, increase their efficiency and pro um profit margins. They create a Google slide presentation and then they actually have to create their livestock facility using a 3D design software. So when they start it looks like this. So, they actually have

010the just a blank design and then they have tools. And I'm going to let them come up and show it in just a minute. But they start with their dream house. And the reason I start with this is because they have to know something they have to work with. So, they learn their basic features. So, my students start out with ranking couches and chairs and stoves. And you kind of get the idea here. Toilets, sinks, bathtubs, uh, showers, beds. So you can see and then we get more elaborate when they start working with their kitchen designs. So you can see it and then of course some of them get creative with TVs. Uh you can see some of this. Then they actually start with the creation of their livestock facility. So my girls are going

011to come up. Okay. So they're going to showcase. You guys can spread out a little bit and they can just come around and look at it. So what they have to do is they literally start with some farms. So I'm showing you some of the examples of the students come here. And so we have chicken farms that they design. We have beef farm designs. And this starts with that blank design. So they come in, they have to do um everything from the operation to where they handle the the the um cattle. They actually come in, they actually create like sliding doors for it. They put gates in it. They have to have a storage facility. Um, they have to have pins to handle it. So, this is another horse farm. And then some people put

012in silos to handle the uh grainery. They have to have roads. They have to have um facilities to pick up the animals. Um, depending on what they they do. So, this one was actually a 5,000 uh operations. They have to have a profit margin and then they also have to have some of them get creative and actually create trees and then they have to have the loading dock to be able to put them in. And one of my students is actually working on their own personal so they get a salary in my my classroom so they earn salaries. So based on their salaries they can build their own personal equipment and also their personal um vehicles. So, this guy's actually designing his own truck. He said to tell you to let you know he's still

013working on the wheels. Uh, just letting you know. Okay. And then I want to thank Emma, Kayla, and Sarah. Sorry, Emma. Couldn't do a blank. And if you have any questions, come and visit us. They're still working. This is a work in progress. Um, we've been on this about about two and a half weeks is all they've worked on this project from the blank slate that you actually saw. But, thank you very much. you. So, now we want to present what our DHS choir is doing, and Jake will talk a little bit about what that includes. This year, the Deny High School choirs have been very busy. In the fall, they sang the national anthem at the homecoming football game. They sang the holiday carols at the Dewity Health and Rehab and they performed a

014lovely winter concert program and more. In November, five students auditioned for all district chorus and two students were selected. Those were Jada Young and Kana Arai. That event took place in February and was another great success. In March, the choir had a great performance at the fine arts festival. Later this year, they will attend a competition at King's Dominion. Last year, the students attended this competition and received um superior rating in the first place award. We hope to continue this tradition again in 2025. And please join us on May 5th for the spring course concert at 5:30 p.m. in the high school auditorium. So now we would like to get into a few of our clubs because of course our clubs are always doing something. I would recommend to any students who may be watching

015this or even just parents to encourage their children to join clubs because they definitely do help and they add certain foundations that you may not learn in the classroom and they give the opportunity to just communicate with other students and have that time outside of school to just learn extra things. So we would like to start with Deca and Michaela Nicholson will be discussing this. Good evening everyone. Um I am beyond elated to speak to you guys today about DECA. Um we are doing big things as always. We love our club all the way down and all the way up. So um the first thing I want to speak to you guys about is our district placements. Um a few names that I want to mention and I want you guys to remember these people

016because these are going to be the people that you're going to see in big and high places. They have big and bright personalities and I'm so excited to see what they do in their future. The first name is Erica Smith. She was a first place placer as well as Ammani Molofflin, Nicholas Peters and Jaden Hobbs. Also coming in at second place there was Trinity Czechini as well as in third place Tiari Reed, Kayla Simmons and can and Kayla Walker. Um the three stage placers that walked up on the stage were also Michaela Nicholson, me Kamari South, and Xavier Brown. As I said, these people have big personalities, and that's what we're all about with DECA is creating a voice for people who otherwise would not have known how to speak up for themselves, as well

017as making big personalities in new big industries like marketing. Um, I also want to talk to you guys about when we went to states, we were able to network with several people around the globe. It was an amazing experience and we hope to continue doing that each and every year to come. Um, we will also participate in SBE week, which is our school-based enterprise. We, as everyone should know, maybe possibly, um, we do run the school store in Dewity County. Um, so we sell t-shirts, food, everything. And that also serves as a place for people to find whether they like marketing and a um, there we go, workbased experience. Um, so yes, that is the majority and the bulk of what we do here at Deca. Um, and we thank you guys for supporting us

018all the way through. We wouldn't be able to do it without you guys. Thank you. So, next we would like to show what FBLA is doing and we have Emma Brown and Nala Bane coming up to discuss that. Hello, my name is Nala Bang and I serve as a vice president here at DeWla and I'm a senior and I'm just here to tell you a little bit about our chapter. Um, we have many accomplishments throughout the whole school year, but our most recent one was 10 of our members placed in regionals to go to states and we went to states last weekend with a few of our members, four of our members and one of our advisors and we attended states in Western Virginia over spring break and our members were tested. They were interviewed

019and role played based on their competitive event and we're just so proud of them for their accomplishments. All the names are listed up there. Hi, I'm Emma Brown. Um, I would like to talk about states as I was one of the competitors. Uh, it was a really nice um opportunity to be able to hang out with people from all over the state, different schools, from different districts, and it was really nice. Next, we're going to talk about our highlights from FPLA this year because we did participate in a lot of things. So, um, a few of our highlights, these aren't all of them, but, um, our most main ones was we participated in custodian appreciation week. Um, we gifted our custodians with free lunch from the country store and they enjoyed it. Um, we participated

020in FBLA week. That was the week of Valentine's Day. We gifted our advisors with a appreciation gift. And that following Friday, we made love bags for our members for Valentine's Day. Yes. So to elaborate on the love bags, um we had this is like a Valentine's Day type of event um for us to be able to uh appreciate our members because we did gain 40 plus members this year. So we were really excited about that. Um we had also done sotober for our senior class. We had um asked them to donate socks and to help out with that. Um, but next, uh, the slide's not up there, but I have, um, a list of a few accomplishments that are Army JRTC has been doing. I'm the exo as well for that. Uh, I want to

021start off with our community service. We have over 1,200 hours of community service logged for this year, as well as our leadership development. We had 10 cadetses attend JCLC. That's our junior cadet leadership challenge. Uh five cadetses served as mentors in the incoming let one class. Uh that's where we have like our eighth graders come in and we're teaching them to develop for the next four years of high school. Uh for our academic achievements, we had an average GPA across the battalion which increased point4 points. We had three cadets awarded a national JTC academic um recognition. Five cadetses signed contracts to serve in the armed forces. Six cadetses have been accepted into a trade school, college, or university. And five cadetses of the 2024 graduates have completed Army and Navy basic entry level training. So,

022we're very proud of them. Um to add on for our recognition and awards, we had cadetses receive recognition from local VFW, American Legend, school board, uh Demodify Fire and EMS, local churches, and Southerntherland Elementary. So that's just thank you. Thank you. We would also like to now highlight the Chick-fil-A Leader Academy and we will have Gabrielle Bostik and Molly Ford come up and talk about that. Okay. Hi, my name is Gabrielle Bostik. I'm Molly Ford and we have been with Chick-fil-A Leadership Academy for three years now. Um Chick-fil-A's been a part of Diminy High School, like the Chick-fil-A leadership academy since 2019. and we're sponsored by the Colonial Heights location. So the purpose of Chick-fil-A Leadership Academy is to impact through action. So we focus on making an impact on our school and our community

023through the actions we do. So, one of our big events that we do happens in our fall and winter um seasons at school, and that is our Do Good December project, where we pick a group or organization to sponsor and collect things um schoolwide uh to help support that group. So, this year we collected hygiene products and care products to support the James House out of um Petersburg, I think it is, or Colonial Heights. Um, and so we we collected um, you know, sanitary pro products and things that helped them out um, as an organization in boxes that we set up around the school. And we went carefully. And we also went carolling at the um, Dinwy Health and Rehab Center as well. Not sure how much caroling it was, but we tried. We tried.

024And then every year we do um a yearly impact project as well. And so we for three years now we've done the Dewey High School faculty versus the Dewey Middle School faculty softball game. And so it's a fundraiser where um admission you bring a canned good and then we donate it. Um so this year is our third year doing it and it's going to be May 2nd at 4 p.m. And I think the middle school is hoping to reclaim their title so be sure to come out. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Thank you. So, now we're going to talk about two more clubs, which is the DHS players and forensics. And we're going to have Jacob Petrayski come up and talk about both of those clubs. Hi, my name is Jacob Petrayski and I am the president

025of the drama club at our high school and I'm very excited to represent that today. So, every year we put on two productions. um our fall show, a monster calls, we took it to the regional level and we competed against five other schools in the area and like the region. For that I received an outstanding acting award and the production held high acclaim by everyone who saw it and it received really great reviews. It was really good. Thank you. It was led by um me. I played Connor Ali. Trey Shartter played the monster. Leaz Williams played the grandma and Jennifer Benson played the mom. Next up for our shows, we will be doing the show Puffs. It is kind of a spoof on Harry Potter. It's like at the Hufflepuffs and that's how the story

026revolved around it. But and we really hope you see it. It's a great show. Great group of people. The next one. And then furthermore, this February and March um the forensics and speech team got to compete alongside the regional and super regional and state level. Um, at the regional level, myself, Kovian Rhodess, Nikila Ashwood, Lillian Moley, and Zoe Gordon all placed within the regional level in first, second, and third. And at the super regional level, myself and Kobe Rhodess and Nila both all placed. Kobe Rhodess and Nila Aswood did serious duo dramatic, and I did pros interpretation. And at the state level, we competed on March 29th, and I placed second at the state level, making it my second time placing there. And also just a shout out, something that's not recognized by an award

027is through forensics, we gained doubled our participation this year. Wow. Buting thank you so much. Thank you. Talk about sports. Okay, so now we're going to just talk about our sports accomplishments because of course you all know that Den Woody is always good with our sports and we're always doing something, making a new title for us, making a new thing for us with our sports. So Jake is going to highlight some of those things. Okay. So as you know we have many successful sports within our school and the first thing that is highlighted is that the football was the region runner up this year. The golf was it was their first time in school history that they qualified for the second day of the team tournament and the boys placed sixth. The boys and girls

028basketball the boys placed ninth in the region and the girls made the second round. Within the wrestling Amanda Walker won the girls state championship which is outstanding. the Scholastic Bowl. Well, they won first place in the region and super region and then continued to place third in the state. So, we have some very successful sports as you can see within the within the school. We look forward to a prosperous spring with lots of accomplishments for our teams and athletes within track, baseball, softball, tennis, and soccer. I would also like to highlight that these pictures were taken by the Dwey High School yearbook and you can see the little picture of I would like to say my little crew and um we're always just getting out there getting pictures making sure we get the perfect shot

029and as you can see it definitely shows right here with some of these high moments that we've captured in these games. So now we would like for the basketball cheerleaders to come up and do a cheer for you all. We have Emry Moore and Michaela Gordon coming up to cheer. I will be cheering and I cheer no matter the wear. So I will say that patience cars as well. Ready to do it. It takes up my teaching to how we grow. Our shs sh ours what we do. It's one two. So we just want to say that DY High School thanks you all for your time. We hope that you enjoyed our highlights with our academics, our clubs, and our sports. and we are just really proud of how hard our generals are working when

030it comes to teachers, students, staff, faculty, everybody is doing something and they're making a part. So, thank you all for your time. [Applause] Armani, I just want I hope someone filmed you cheering in those heels because it made my ankles hurt. I think we got career and tech. Was this everybody? Yes. So, the next recognition that we have is the career in technical education. Miss Clary is going to come forward do that for us. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. I want to thank you for the opportunity to come here today to present to you and showcase the incredible work that is being done in the CTE department and helping prepare our students for the workforce and how fitting that it is that it is workforce readiness month. Our first recognition though, we would like to congratulate

031Chef Brittany Capeti and her dedication to the Dewity High School culinary program. It is a tremendous honor for Dewity High School to receive the American Culinary Federation National Certification. This prestigious recognition not only validates the high standards for our culinary program, but it opens the doors for our students, giving them a competitive edge with industry recognized credentials, real world skills, and increased opportunities for careers in the culinary arts. This is a true gamecher for our students. Chef Capeti, congratulations and thank you very much. That's amazing. Thank you. For a whole program. So, yes. Um I did want to say that we have three students who are um planning to attend Johnson Wales this year. So, that's exciting. We're getting bigger and bigger that we have more that are really wanting to do this and hopefully

032a couple more that are going to to J Sergeant Reynolds, too. So, that's amazing. Yes. Thank you all. Thank you. So, I want to highlight for you a lot of things that have been going on this school year within the CTE department and again preparing the students for the workforce. So, in November, we had our industry day. We had 41 business partners this year in the career fair and 14 different breakout sessions this year for the students where the students got to choose smaller groups to go into and have more interaction with the business partners on how it operates and the educational requirements that is required in order to be able to go into that business field. We also welcomed 10 new business partners that have joined force with us this year. Um we want

033to welcome Roger A. Palmer Dentistry, Winteret Web Technologies, Organized Marketing, Point Realy Group, EY, East Coast Elite Chiropractic, Senokco Products Company, Haze Construction, 313 Franklin, and Healthy Minds. So, we were excited to have them on board with us this school year and also many of them being their first time coming to industry day also chose to do a breakout session for our students. So, we are very excited about that opportunity for them. Something new that we are doing this year is workforce Wednesday. So this is an opportunity for students to come learn about workforce related skills during lunch. Um during that time myself and then some of the um members from the CTE advisory and any other business partners will come in. We meet one to two times a month and cover a variety of

034workforce related topics. Um, right now students that attend five or more sessions by the end of the school year will receive a certificate at the end of the year at their awards ceremony validating um their participation in that program. And it also gives them an artifact to be able to put in there their portfolio whenever they go to apply for colleges or go for a interview with a business partner. Currently, right now, we have 16 students that are on track to receive this certificate, and we're hoping that the numbers will continue to increase even more because students are starting to learn about this new program that we're offering, our work-based learning opportunities. So, I wanted to give you the opportunity to take a look at the numbers. First semester, we had eight office aids, three

035student aids, and 17 of our seniors participated in government day, which was a job shadow opportunity. second semester. Right now, we currently have nine office aids, one library aid, and 10 student aids. This school year so far, we had 10 school store workers, and we have one youth registered apprenticeship with Wayne Cook Electric. Um, again, this is an authentic work-based learning experience. They are required to do resumeumés. They turn in reflection forms on what they've been doing throughout the week. They also go and they have to complete a final project and present it to myself and their supervisor at the end of the semester. So it not only gives us feedback feedback but it helps them with their presentation skills as well. So a new opportunity that we have this year um we test her

036and she has done a fantastic job with doing independent study with our promotional videos. So, we have loved the work that she has put into this and I've thoroughly enjoyed working with her and we're going to keep this going next school year. So, right now we have four seniors. This is going to be a senior init initiative. We have four seniors that are can continue this next year and they are getting ready to go with us on trips throughout the month now to get training on how the videos are being done interacting with different people in the community and then we again we will keep that going again next school year and we are very excited about that as we're capturing a lot of the highlights and the great things that are taking place here

037at Denwitty the reverse career fair. So this year we had 15 seniors participate in the reverse career fair at Breitpoint Community College. These students are seeking either full-time or part-time employment after graduation and our business partners requested interviews with 12 out of the 15 seniors. So we were very proud of that. Offers are currently being made right now at this time. As of today, four offers have been made. one senior has officially secured full-time employment and that is with one of our new business partners um Haze Construction and the rest of the offers are supposed to be made by April 18th. So, we're still currently getting those in. I know tomorrow I take two seniors to Super Radiator as well. So, we're getting them in to be able to see the job sites and see

038if they will accept the offers from our business partners. So, I want you have the opportunity not only to check out our seniors in action from the reverse career fair, but also this gives you an opportunity to check out the work that's being taken place with our promotional videos in our new independent study. Whoops. Help me out there. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. [Music] Hey. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Hey, would you [Music] Okay. You got me? Yes. All right. On three. One, two, three. [Music] So again, we are enjoying these videos that are being done and really looking forward to keeping this initiative going because this is an opportunity to be able to show students what it's like to attend the reverse career fair and also it captures

039the interaction that our students had um with the business partners that day. [Music] [Applause] [Music] So, here's what's next and what we have coming up very soon. Are you ready? Are you ready? [Music] So we are currently in the planning phases and getting ready to execute here within the next two weeks our first CTE village. So the CTE village is going to be career exploration for all the fifth grade students here in Denwitty County. um they will be coming to the high school April 21st and April 22nd and we will have career exploration stations for our CTE from culinary to branding all our different CTE departments are showcasing something and we're also incorporating the STEM village as well. So science so standards will be incorporated into that and our teachers for tomorrow's students will be

040the one teaching those fifth grade students those science standards. So again we are excited about this new opportunity um that we are bringing to the county. Um also coming up other events going on that week we have kindergarten egg days coming up on the 23rd and 24th. 8th grade is getting ready to take field trips to Richard Bland and Roani. We have CTE signing day coming up on May 2nd. And then also we are in the planning phases of our first soft skills workshop that's going to be taking place the last week of school for the Denady High School students. So again, thank you again for the opportunity and we're looking forward to the last events coming up. Um the last recognition that we have um this evening, Miss Benjamin, is u Miss Spyers is

041going to come forward and talk to you about some of our rockstar staff members. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Um I'm here this afternoon to recognize the Southside Virginia Regional Technology Consortium Technology Award winners. That was a mouthful. Um so um DIY is a part of um SBRTC which their mission is to support the integration of current and emerging technologies um and to provide valuable training for K12 students, staff and community members to enhance learning at all levels. So each year SVRTC has um an awards banquet and this year it was on March the 19th at Longwood University. And so today I would like to recognize those individuals that were recognized that day. So for instructional technology support award I would like to recognize um Tabitha Owen. So she's they have the Yep. Come on up

042here. Come on. Stand by myself. Um, Tabitha Owen is the librarian at Midway Elementary School and is dedicated to integrating technology into library instruction through engaging hands-on experiences. She incorporates STEM activities, coding, and technology tools to enhance learning success at all on all grade levels through hands-on experiences like building catapults, creating circuits with root robots, and coding a Thanksgiving parade with coding mice. She fosters problem solving and critical thinking. She also integrates literature with technology and guides students in creating book trailers with Canva. In addition, Miss Owen teaches digital literacy lessons on online safety, media literacy, and responsible digital citizenship. Her commitment to innovation in her active learning enhances students develop creativity, collaboration, and strong technology skills in a dynamic library environment. So, congratulations on Next, I'd like to recognize um the technology teacher award,

043which is Courtney Massingill. Courtney Massingill is the gifted specialist at Denwy Middle School and Denwy High School. Um where she integrates technology into instruction to challenge and engage all students. She enhances the English language arts curriculum with innovation strategies and tech tools, helping students exceed academic expectations. Her dedication to STEM education shines through her leadership of the school's new robotics team and her hands-on projects in the STEM lab, many of which she has received recognition for inspiring critical thinking and problem solving. Beyond the classroom, Miss Massenill strengthens family engagement with a weekly electronic newsletter that keeps parents informed and connected to student learning. Her passion for innovation, student success, and expanding technology opportunities makes her a deserving recipient of the technology teacher award. So, congratulations, Miss M. And our final um recognition is for the

044technology support award. And I'd like to recognize Deniqua W. Deni W is the technology support specialist for Sutherland Elementary and Midway Elementary and she plays a vital role in ensuring smooth and efficient technology operations. She provides essential support for desktop, laptops, Chromebooks, and iPads, keeping devices functional and accessible for students and staff. With her strong problem solving skills and proactive approach, Mrs. W quickly addresses technology requests and maintains reliable service. She has built trusted relationships with school staff and the technology team, making her an invaluable part of the district support network. Her commitment to excellence and reliability makes her a welldeserving recipient of the technology support award. So, congratulations. So, so they're all very outstanding and we are very happy that we were able to recognize them this year at um the banquet. So, thank

045you. Thank you. Thank you. Board member comments. As usual, the highlight of all these meetings for me are when the students come up and make these presentations, but the energy and the enthusiasm that they gave not only to their presentations, but the love that they show for their clubs and their teams is just outstanding. Great things are taking place. Mhm. I I'll echo that sentiment. I just I think sometimes um the business of these meetings bogs bogs us down a bit, but it's really neat to be reminded every month that there are a lot of good things happening here and we need to uh be intentional about acknowledging that. And you guys, Mr. Gardens, I applaud you and what you guys are doing there. And uh we're we're excited to see the successes that are

046happening at Dwy High School. It's a it's an encouraging to me that the variety of um successes, the variety of types of clubs, types of awards. Uh there's something for everybody at Denm High School and you just got to find your niche, find what is your passion and uh go join that group and good things will happen. Yeah. Well, Ammani started off the recognition section by saying she was a bit biased thinking that this was going to be her favorite presentation and it's definitely my favorite as well. Um, definitely had a different energy and and vibe to it, which was very exciting. Um, I wasn't a DH, excuse me, DHS student. Um, but you guys are making me this much more jealous. Um, so very excited to see all the work from our cheerleaders um

047to appla to the CTE program. again, you know, as pointed out, everyone has something that they can do and specialize in. And I think that's um a privilege and something I'm glad to see, you know, really thriving. And then also congratulations to all of our staff that received the SDRTC awards. Um again, everyone, you know, plays a role. And it's super exciting to see all the new opportunities and things that we have for our students, even on the elementary level. You know, ways that you can integrate technology instead of being afraid of it. You know, we're finding ways to be innovative. Um and I'm really excited about that. Who knows what 20 years from now, you know, we'll have in the classroom. It'll be pretty exciting. So, thank you for the hard work that you

048do with our students. Thank you, members. Um, Mr. Garn kind of a little bit let the cat out the bag when he came up. He said I wasn't going to do as much as he did last year, but he said they didn't win at County High School. So, so when anybody say that, you know, they kind of give me a little tidbit of what they all about. But I'm just so happy to see that all the learning experiences that the students are getting from the Denwitty County High School and that means that they have been trained from or learned from first grade kindergarten on up. And when they got to the Denw County High School, they were really ready for that. And I'm just so happy that not just learning academics, they're learning to give

049back community services and all of that. And you know that makes a wellrounded adult and that's what I'm so happy for. Thank you staff members for all you do and thank you parents and thank you students. Great job. Well done. Dr. West. Yeah. I would just like to say that um first of all I'm proud of the kids every single day and in addition to Mr. guards. I'm fairly certain that Ammani runs the high school now because she doesn't have any classes this semester, but yet every time I go over there, she's working at doing something. So, she still has her normal schedule and she's still running things over there and keeping Mr. Garn straight, too. Um, but I want to uh really shout out our adviserss and our coaches coaches and our and our

050teacher leaders because I'm going to tell you absolutely all of these things that you saw tonight would not be possible without those individuals um in the classroom on the sidelines um and doing these great things for kids. So, I just want to make sure that we pause for a moment to say thank you to those individuals who put in countless countless hours to make all of these wonderful things happen for our young people. So, thank you all so much for that. Okay, board matters. So, we can they might have to go home and do homework or something. If someone has to go home and do homework and you student um the adults who received a waters, I guess you go out to dinner. Yes, you got. So, thank you so much students and staff members

051who came. Miss Benjamin, um Ammani was saying she's going to take the pictures for you guys. Thank you. So, don't leave until you get your picture. See, she's in charge. I told you they're going going out in the in the lobby. In the lobby, Jason, you can go back. We're going to send him back. You can go back and do a senior, right? and take a minute. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Board matters. Yes. We're going to start this evening with um the 2526 Carl Perkins plan and Miss Wolf. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. I tried to type up a summary because no one really has uh the infinite time that it takes to go through the 70page actual grant, but I tried to create some highlights for you. Um, and so what I'm going to

052do is just go through those pieces um and kind of give you an overview of how we prioritize the spending each year. We don't know the exact amount that we're going to be receiving, but by the end of April, we have to um upload our grant in what's considered uh substantially approvable so that we emphasize the goals of the grant for the coming year. And then once we are given our actual allocation, I'll go back and amend it to keep those same kind of goals aligned with uh how it's originally presented. Um, our application starts with identifying uh what they consider the proficiency requirements for the Perkins application. Um, this year all of the indicators were increased by the state. So, all of those performance indicators were increased pretty significantly. There was one area that

053we missed by two percentage points and that was non-traditional program concentration. Uh this would include examples uh like our female students that are participating in our power systems classes within the agricultural education department or um our male students that are participating in nurse aid. And this the federal uh calculation for that is looking at what gender is maybe underrepresented uh throughout the United States um and what courses those align to. So, uh, we will be more intentional with recruitment to non-traditional program area concentration for the coming year. Um and we will be doing that by updating our CTE catalog that we distribute to our students as well as um when we have our breakout sessions at industry day possibly showcasing and making sure that our presenters for those are possibly non-traditional representation to show that

054you know you you don't have to be a specific gender in order to excel in a career field. Um our specific goals for this coming year include uh we will have new courses in CTE including agricultural fabrication and emerging technology which more aligns with our industry needs uh and our student interests in welding and drone technology. And so that also has um it also can lead more into uh our programs at Breitpoint and Richard Bland. So we're hopefully going to increase our concurrent and dual enrollment opportunities there. We're also looking to add sports medicine uh one and athletic trainer um and that will complete and that will be the uh program of study that we also submit submit to the state in health sciences. So we added medical terminology this year which is a great

055pairing with our science course anatomy and then we'll add in sports medicine. Uh and so students will have opportunities at all four grade levels to have a um health and medical sciences course. Um we always want to make sure that we are supporting students, teachers, administrators and counselors with professional development and that's one of our required expenses um as per the grant and you will see some of those other things there. We have seen increased participation at Breitpoint and Rowani. We currently have the most enrollment of the three schools at Rwani Technical Center and we've been working with uh the principal there to try to continue to expand those opportunities for our Rouani students um with the hopes of having nurse aid and our welding programs becoming dual enrollment uh if not this fall in

056the very near future. Um when we look at the comprehensive needs assessment that I presented to you last year, we have to do it every two years. So, I'm continuing to build on those goals and then I will be reassessing it next spring um and presenting the updated comprehensive needs assessment to you. But it has us breaking out the required versus permissible expenses. And I kind of gave you a highlight of those required expenses. Um and that has to account for 60% of the grant. 40% of the grant can only be the permissible. um the permissible while they're considered permissible are extremely important to our students and that includes CTE certification testing and a lot of our students have been afforded opportunities through the CTSOs by applying for what we call our CTSO scholarship so

057that we can offset some of the costs for students in their registration, their lodging or their travel expenses. Um, and so those have been extremely helpful for our students to contr continue to build the CTSO programming at the middle and high school. Next month you'll hear um some more highlights about our middle school and all the great things that the FBA at the middle school is doing. Um, and they're actually going to be the focus of our workforce readiness award for VSBA that I'll be presenting. So those are just the basic highlights. I did include the uh hyperlink to all of the performance indicators for you. You can see that we have demonstrated growth every uh year. Um they give you the three-year um layout of those. And like I said, the only one that

058we saw a slight decline was in um the non-traditional program concentration and they increased that from 10% to 29%. And so it made it there was some really big jumps and so we're going to continue to go through and evaluate ways to make it even better. But um you can see uh how we have been performing overall. So at this time I am just requesting approval to submit the per Perkins grant um with these priorities heightened and then once we receive our allocation I will be following up with our advisory with the exact totals and how all that will be spent. Are there any questions that I can answer? questions for so these are federal funds. Yes. So we don't expect an interruption in any of that or we there has not been any indication

059as of yet that there would be an interruption to that. Um so fingers crossed. Well we we were told this morning that um the the only one at this point that with regard to the federal funds would be title two that we think might there might be a disruption to that one. The others would probably be safe for some time. Okay. At least through September. Yeah. And we know we So they also have um already given us uh an indication that we would receive reserve funds. A lot of times the school divisions that don't spend all of their money, we spend every penny, don't worry. Um that they reallocate those funds from the previous year to the schools that did spend all of their amounts. And so we'll receiving about another thousand. and that will

060help us to continue to offer a few more certification tests for students um and offset some more of our CTSO travel for this summer. Um I move that we um accept the Carl Perkins plan and allow her to um make her application. Second. It has been moved and second that we ex accept her plan to allow her to move on with her application. All those in favor use the usual sign. I hearing no nays. Thank you very much. It is approved. Next we have special ed annual plan. Good evening everyone. Madam chair, Dr. Weston, members of the board and all present. Um, we do have part of our special ed advisory council members here tonight to support as well. So, I'm glad to have them here. Um, I'm standing before you tonight to present the

0612025 2026 special education annual plan. Can you go to presentation mode? There you go. All right. So the purpose of this plan is um this serves as our formal agreement with the department of education for how we are going to spend our federal funds that we receive and to make sure that we do implement all federal and state laws and regulations which govern special education. So, one of the certifications that is part of the annual plan application states that um we certify that the school division has developed local policies and procedures for the provision of special education and related services which are kept current and which ensure compliance with the requirements of and any revisions to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEIDA, its federal implementing regulations and the Virginia Board of Education's regul

062ations. Um so the actual plan gets approved by the school board. Um a physical copy is kept on file here at the school division which will be signed by the superintendent and then um the electronic file gets submitted to the department of education. One part of the annual plan includes an inter agency agreement with any local and regional jails um which we in Demi County do not have any local or regional jails which house juveniles who would potentially be receiving services as a student with a disability. So we just make a statement in that section of the plan that we do not have a local or regional jail. So it does not require an agreement. Another section of the plan includes an implementation narrative and we always have to look at the previous year's funding

063and how we spent those funds. So it indicates to the to what extent we used those funds um based on whatever the application was the year before. So the statement in this year's application will be that the 2023 24 annual plan was fully implemented and that we have complied with all assurances and provisions that are set forth in the document. Another section of the plan does require us to review something that's called maintenance of effort, which is something that um as a director of special education, I work closely with the finance office to make sure that we always spend at least the same amount that we did the previous year or that we meet or exceed whatever the highest level year has been. So, the Department of Education uses a formula um and I'll show

064you on the next slide kind of where we sit currently in each of the categories that are required. If for some reason a division does not meet maintenance of efforts in at least one of the four categories, then they are required to pay back whatever that shortfall is to the Department of Education. And the way that that works is the Virginia Department of Education pays that back to the federal department and then we as a school division work with the Virginia Department of Education to create a payment plan. And to pay that shortfall, you cannot use federal funds. You have to use your local dollars. So we always want to make sure that we're not, you know, shortch changing special education, which could potentially cause us to owe money back. So on this um thee

065test number one just looks at our local expenditures and as you can see in this category the year-to-year comparison we were actually in 2324 spending less than our previously um highest level but we were able to utilize an exception due to a decrease in enrollment which allowed us to basically zero out that amount. So that negative $83,33818 um Martina worked through and with Christy and calculated to make sure that you know that amount could actually be canceled out basically. So we were actually able to meet in all four areas by the time it was all said and done. So test number two looks at our local and our state expenditures together. And then three and four takes um the test from one and two and breaks it down on a per capita level. So looking

066at our enrollment and then figuring out what is a per capita cost per child based on our local and state expenditures. These next couple of slides just kind of provide you guys with a little bit of history as far as what our fall membership has been over the past six years, what our December one special education count has been and where that kind of lands us as far as our percentage of students who are identified in special education. And then I want to call your attention to that last column. Um, coming out of the pandemic, we have seen a great increase, not just on the special education side, but of course divisionwide, of students who have opted to be parentally placed either in a private school or a um or a home school situation. And

067what that does is that requires us to set aside a percentage of our federal funds that we receive to provide services to those students because they still live in our division and by child find requirements we are still required to provide services to them. So you'll see in the next slide it kind of because of that increase of students who are in those situations it has pulled some of our funding that we have to kind of set aside um to provide those services. So then I'm going to go back just a second. So when we look at in 2223 there were 15 students um who had disabilities that were enrolled in parentally placed private or home schools. So then that number caused us in 2324 to have to start setting aside a certain percentage of

068our funds to potentially provide services. Now what happens to those funds if the parents don't ask for services? Correct. Correct. So what like currently I think we only have um out of the 24 who are identified in that setting we only have six who are actually requesting services. Um and part of that is because we can write our grant application to say that we're only going to provide related services. So at this time typically that's only if a student um qualifies for speech services. And then what happens is the parent will work with our speech pathologist. They'll create a schedule where the student comes in like at the end of the day or something for a walk-in session. Um whether it's, you know, once a week, twice a month, whatever it is based on their

069needs. And the speech pathologist will write what we call an individual service plan for the student instead of an individual education plan because they no longer fall under the requirement of a free appropriate public education since they're not in public school. So if we don't use the 45,000, what happens? So, yep. I'm going to get to that here. So, what happens is those funds have to sit there for 2 years. So, the funds that were set aside in 2324 had to sit there for 2324 and 2425. So, what'll happen is this summer when we get to June 30, whatever funds we haven't spent out of the amount from the 45771 from last year, um Martina will do a budget transfer. Those will go back into our 611 regular funding and then we can use those.

070We have three months to use them because we only have until September 30th to use those funds. Um, but we've already, her and Christy and I have kind of talked of a plan like we'll go ahead and submit reimbursements for um, salaries and benefits for the staff that are in that grant and be able to use up those funds so we don't lose them. So, because typically, I mean, when you think about only six of the students are getting services and it's only one day a week or whatever, it's not going to use up $45,000. But that amount is is using again a formula that the state develops of what we have to set aside. So, All right. So, there's two sections to our funding that we receive. We receive what's called 611 funds, which

071is a flowthrough fund. This is for school age students. And we currently use that amount for salaries for um nine special education teachers and six pair of professionals. And so, um, the projected amount that you see there, the 1,66,155, that's our current award. And the way that this grant application works is we use whatever the current year's award is. That's the estimated amount for the next year. And then when we actually receive the grant award, there will be some variance in what we actually have received. Um, and we do set aside $8,000 in that grant for the grants administration, which is the part that Martina Bulock Seabour helps with to submit the reimbursements and all of that piece. And then the other pot of money that we receive is what we call 619, which is

072for early childhood. Um, so this amount of course is significantly smaller and we only use one FTE out of that, which is for an exceptional education pair professional. And then again a small amount for Martina's grants administration. So the timeline with this um grant application is that it did have to be presented to the special ed advisory committee for review. Um so I did that in March because our April meeting doesn't fall till later this week which was after the board meeting. Um so I did present this last month to them. um presenting it to you guys tonight, requesting your approval, and then um I will finish plugging in everything into the actual application and um submit that by May 9th to the Department of Ed. Any questions you guys have? If you had to

073say that there were any big differences from the previous year, are there any specifics? No, the only thing we did um previously we had been submitting 16 positions in the grant and after meeting with Dr. Weston, Dr. Clay, um Emily, and Christie, we looked at our positions. Um there's one position that we actually moved under a different application where we we can actually receive a little bit different funding for that um for a student who receives a onetoone aid. And so we did move that. We also looked at making sure that we don't want to completely use up all the money only for salaries and benefits because we never know what students going to move into the division or qualify for services and then we don't have any sort of buffer in our budget to

074be able to cover those needs. So we talked about that and and we actually bumped one position back out of the this grant. Thank you. Yeah, of course. Any other question? Thank you. also saw that the special ed percentage is increasing. Yeah, it's maintaining or increasing and we are seeing more and more students who have um very specific needs especially with oneto ones and things of that nature. Autism program is growing. Correct. So very vulnerable. Yeah. Student. So you must be doing a great job because everybody's coming. Everybody I I keep saying to my team I'm like there has to be a flashing sign out there somewhere. There is. Well, it's because we do such a great job. I think Absolutely. Anyone else? Any other questions? She needs approval. Yes, I would like your approval

075if you Madam Chair, I move that we approve the special education annual plan as presented. Second. It has been moved and second that we accept the special education um program plan as presented. All of those in favor use the usual sign. I the eyes have it. It is approved. Thank you all so much. Thank you. Madam Chair, is there any new business? Madam Secretary, no new business. Superintendent Matters. Um yes. I'd like to ask um you know that we've been Go ahead, Mr. Watson. Come here. Um so you know that we've been looking into different ways to tackle the um late bus situation. Um and one such recommendation was a staggered bell schedules and we received a lot of feedback about one proposal and so um Mr. Walters is going to come and give you

076an update about where we are with all of that. Thank you. Yeah. Good evening. Um I know we've we've talked about this a number of times and um March 11th when I came before you, I told you I'd report back to you on April 8th and tell you exactly what we found. Uh we did seven feedback sessions between February 18th and March 27th. Uh we also had several community conversations whether it be via email or you know talking with people phone calls in person. Um the groups that we spoke to uh secondary principles, elementary principles, division staff, community members, support staff. Uh we asked our building principles to speak to our our school staffs. You know, we wanted to make sure we got everybody's feedback. Um now, if I'm being completely honest, most of the

077feedback was in opposition to the staggered bell schedule, you know, and and that's kind of what we wanted. We wanted to hear the truth. We wanted to hear what the community had to say about it. Um the common themes we heard, there were four pretty common themes is uh 3:55 to 4:00 was uh too late to end elementary age for elementary age students. Uh and 9 to 9:15 was too early or excuse me, too late to start uh elementary because parents creates a hardship for parents having to get their kids to school. Um DHS and DMS not being on the same schedule created a lot of logistical issues. um and uh before and after school daycare availability and affordability created issues for working parents. Now, there's a bright side to number four there that we'll

078talk about here in a second. We're hoping there's a bright side anyway. Um so, what we came up with is while we while the staggered bell schedule has been implemented and proven successful in other communities, it doesn't appear that it's at this time the right answer for our community. Um, so we are exploring uh other options and we've decided to basically halt our our attempts to uh to push forward the staggered bell schedule so that we can start focusing on other things that could possibly help with the late buses. Um, and we're going to focus our attention on that. Um, we are still exploring the possibility of offering a contracted service that comes into our schools and does before and after child care uh in the school setting. Uh, as I've told you a number

079of times, Dr. CL and her team did a survey and we got really good results, big results from that survey. And so we're going to sit down and talk about that and we're going to explore that option with other uh contracted uh people to see if that's something we can offer because I think it would be good if we could. And we're we're still going to continue to work on the lay bus thing because it still is an issue. Uh we do have one more meeting uh kind of a think session um with the transportation impact committee scheduled for tomorrow evening. Uh, and what that's going to be is is going to turn into basically a a a think session. You know, what are some other options? What are some outside the box things we

080can think about that we can start exploring to uh possibly remedy the situation or at least make it better. So, um, I'd be happy to answer any other questions. Uh, I know we've talked a lot, but I'd answer any questions you have right now. I I think we talked about this, but we heard a lot of negative, but the the day after we said we probably weren't doing this and I saw like 10 comments. Oh, I thought that was a good idea. And I'm thinking, why didn't you go to the meeting? But um yeah, but I I have a nephew that does the late school in Chesterfield, goes after 9:00, gets up at 4, but the difference between that and us is he still gets home at 4:15 because they're so close. Yeah. It the

081density and our kids would still be on that same bus until 5. So that that's the difference in their ability to do that. And I feel like we really have to find something that it may fit some communities, but we have to find what fits our community, you know, and diminw. So yes, sir, you did mention that, you know, there was overwhelming negative feedback on this. I mean, were there any parents or staff that may have offered uh alternative ideas for what else could be done or Sure. Yeah. Um there there was a couple alternatives offered. A lot of them revolved around um you know, maybe hiring more staff uh and you know getting some more full-time substitute drivers, which I think is a great idea, but what I what I don't want to do

082is throw out that and spend a pile of money and still have the problem. So, we really need to start looking at that and seeing is that going to help. Uh, one thing we do is we take that projection, you know, that that proposed idea and we apply it to the 20 days where we had late buses this year and see would that have really kept us from having late buses those 20 days. If it does, then we go on to the next step. So, we're going to do that. Um, and of course, you know, that's all funding based, so we have to see about whether we can afford it or not. But, um, there there are some some creative options, I thought. But now with our we did a transportation study last year. I

083mean, was there anything in that study that was Well, one of their main ideas, their main themes was a staggered bell schedule. Um, they they quite honestly, it works. You know, this was not my brainchild. This is not something I came up with and said, "Hey, let's try this." I you can search staggered bell schedule online and there's probably a hundred school systems that's done it. But again, they're not Denwitty. You know, we have to find what's right for Denwitty. it, you know, it could have worked in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Stafford County. The day that we decided to throw in the towel on stagger bail schedule, they approved stagger bell schedule for starting next year. You know, it's it's not the same everywhere. Um, but that is one of the things that he said that

084your goal with any transportation, especially with buses, is utilizing the buses as much as you possibly can and then using the same bus for as much as you possibly can. So, meaning getting as many students on there and being as efficient with the use of the buses as you possibly can. Um, the stagger bell schedule can do that, but again, there's give and take on both sides of that. And the the take or the give was starting elementary late, ending elementary late, getting the high school and middle school off the same schedule. I think for me in the conversations that I had with people at least about buses and transportation in general, I think that most of the push back that I had received in conversation were from business owners in the community. Whereas any

085conversation that I had with a family that had children in our schools, they were mainly concerned about, okay, the buses are running late, it's inconveniencing my family, we have to do something about it. So for me, I'm, you know, I was balancing, okay, you know, stakeholders that are interested in this because of profit versus the families that are interested in this because, you know, it's inconveniencing them getting to work on time, it's inconveniencing their other children, and I was more inclined to listen to what the families were saying. Sure. Um, which I think kind of was congruent with having a staggered bell schedule. So I think, you know, it's one of those things where, okay, if we're not going to pursue this idea, we need to, you know, really start generating some alternative ideas. Absolutely.

086Um, and yeah, I don't know how we're going to do that, but we got to do that pretty quickly because, well, like Dr. Weston says, you try to put a bunch of smart people around you and come up with ideas and that's we're starting again and we're going to try that. Um, you know, but I'm certainly not going to stand in front of you and and and tell you something like this is what we have to do when our community doesn't seem to be for it. I think that that's not my job. My job is to try to find something the community can live with the give and take and then present it to you as this is what I feel like the community is behind. On average, how many buses on a day on

087on our worst case scenario in our best case scenario? How many what was the worst case? How many bus late bus drivers were out? And then do we have many days where we had everybody? Um we we do we have some days that we have everybody there. Um, our big problem right now is we have a number of staff out on extended leave. Um, so that's a contract. Yeah. You know, things that they can't help, you know, that's part of life. Uh, so that is a that's a staff member that has a contract that's filling, you know, by law they're going to have that contract and they should, you know, they shouldn't lose their job based on that. But we have to fill that and sometimes that gets difficult to fill because we have I've

088told all my sessions we have two and a half subs right now. um you know I say two and a half it's two subs that can work morning and afternoon and one that can just work in the morning. Um so uh you know it gets difficult to do. We do have days where we don't have late buses though when we find ways to make that work. Um the bus garage has been working with uh their drivers to try to collapse some routes to make you know one driver be able to do more. Um, you got to be careful with that in Denwitty because while the numbers may work, you start looking into a situation where that that route becomes an hour and a half long because of distance. So on a worst day, um, our

089average is 15%. So on a worst day, you're looking at 10 to 12, but now that's four or five secondary and, you know, four or five uh, elementary. So it's 10 to 12 buses, but it's really one bus because a secondary runs a secondary route, then goes and runs an elementary route. So, it's the same driver, same bus. It's just making two groups late. So, I I do have a follow-up question. I mean, I guess it's kind of just my previous question rewarded. Um, so we're not moving forward with the staggered bill schedule as an idea. Um, and I do know that we will be going back out into the community. I know that the transportation committee is meeting again this week, you said. Um, and so hopefully they'll come up with some ideas, but

090I feel like we're kind of walking around in the dark now. Because beforehand when families would reach out to me and say, "Hey, you know, here's an issue that's come up with my bus." Usually a part of that conversation, I would say, "Well, this is, you know, an alternative or a solution that we're, you know, considering." And, you know, I'd be able to discuss that with them. But now, if a parent reaches out to me and says, "Hey, you know, the the issue is still, you know, persistent." I don't really know what to tell them, you know, because I don't know what we're working on now as far as like trying to address this issue. So, like what are going to be next steps for us between now and resolving this issue aside from just

091having conversations with people to get more ideas? Yeah. Well, our our next step right now is we are pursuing, you know, to see if having hiring full-time contracted substitutes is an answer. Um, I I don't know. I mean, I haven't looked at it enough to know. Um, it sounds in theory good to have five people standing on the ready wait ready ready to go when somebody calls in. Um, the hardest thing I think for most families is getting that call at 6:00 in the morning. Hey, your bus is going to be late. If you get if you can get that call in the evening before it's going to be a different bus or your bus is going to be late, I think people can adjust to that. Um, so I'm working on getting consistency so

092then we can start working on being efficient after that. Um, but that's my plan right now is to look into that and the bus garage is looking into that. are also going to uh work very hard this this summer on routing and making sure our routing is as efficient as it can possibly be. And the way we're doing that is we're retraining on on using our routing system and how to make adjustments to our routing. And that'll happen on June 2nd and 3rd, the second school is out. Um if I'm being completely honest, we don't have a concrete plan right now going forward. You know, I'm I'm trying to devise one and come up with one. it it there's a lot of limits to to this situation unfortunately and and one of the things we're

093working with also is we don't want to make a big change right now wholehearted change for one month you know then people have to take time to get used to that and that makes people even more frustrated so Mr. Walters, you you referenced a a transportation committee. Can you speak to what exactly that is and what Yeah. Um, one of one of the things from our study was to come up with a transportation impact committee. And it's a committee that that sits down and talks about policies. Um, it doesn't talk necessarily about day-to-day issues. It talks about what kind of policy changes can you make to make your transportation department more efficient. Um, we've had three meetings. Um, in those who sits on that is that bus drivers or there is a bus driver on

094there, representative bus driver. There's a school board member. Uh there is um members from teachers, from secondary, from admin, secondary, elementary to admin. You know, every every genre that we can find in our school system, somebody sits on it. Okay. So, that's not what I would cuz I was thinking it was a bunch of bus drivers because I have been told by several community members that bus drivers are saying they have solutions like they have ideas. Have you heard from us? I mean, we have we have we've had drivers that have come in and sat with Miss Miss McLhorn or Miss Miss Connors and talked about their routes and said, "Look, this I've been driving this route now all this time and these seven kids never haven't ridden yet." Um, so they they fixed that

095route and tried to shorten it and they actually ended up collapsing one route and one of our long-term people that was out longterm, we were able to collapse their route so we can keep their job but not necessarily have to have a late bus because of it. Is there anything we can do over there at the transportation department to make that more organic like to to where that we don't have to have five public meetings before you know where it's it's happening naturally as opposed to out of response to well I think one of the first steps is is first of all educating people on how to how to use this routing system and how to how to organize a route. It's a lot more than plugging in addresses and push play. um because there's

096a lot of a lot of places in Denim Woody you have to learn and u it doesn't take into account that Denwy is such a large county with so few people you know 57 square miles of 29,000 people um so that's our first step organically so to speak is to have more knowledge about it to have everybody down there the ability to sit with the driver uh cuz as a driver you come in to try to to help out and nobody's there that can help you the person there answering the phone and right you know they can't help you so we want everybody to be able to help that's our first step is everybody to have that knowledge So, and I think that's going to make a big difference. You know, a lot of minds,

097we're actually bringing somebody with knowledge of the student information system for dim schools that's not even in transportation. They're going to come in and train also because we have some trouble with uh the communicating between the two systems, right? Yeah. So, um to answer your question, I think that's the first step is organically to try to get people ready to to assist and to work on this problem. Okay. Yeah. Right now, it's one person down there that can work the the the grounding system. I I guess what where I'm coming from is if we could explore ways to involve the drivers more in the solution and they do have an advisory committee that meets with Mr. Tucker, Miss McLaworn. Yeah. And and um now I'm going to they talk a lot about about the day-to-day

098procedures and operations because that's a big part of driving also and you know situations that come up and how do we handle this? What do we do? Um they talk a lot about bus management, you know, because it's a difficult thing. I'm driving and dealing with everybody behind me. So, they talk about methods and strategies for that, but they do have a voice and that we have told them and we've had several that have come in and sat down with the routers and said, "Look, what can we possibly do to fix this route?" And the drivers know that you're right, they're on the they're on the route every day. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it. And we're going to continue to work. You know, one thing that would help us greatly would be

099that um something that I think that people don't know is that we have to route for all 4,000 kids, right? But only 2,000 kids ride the school bus. Yeah. So, if we could know that definitively that you're not riding the bus, that would help tremendously because they have to stop as if you're going to ride the bus every day. So, we're trying to figure that part out. And then there are people that go, "Well, sometimes I'm going to ride the bus, but then sometimes Mom's going to take me, but no, I'm now 75% 25%. So, it just becomes really a very hard t we're just like chasing the target all the time. So, but about we know about 2,000 kids ride the school bus. So, if we could just narrow that down to really just

100routing those 2,000 and run those routes for those 2,000 kids, I do think we could see a difference in the efficiency of our driving. Yeah. And and I think also you're going to see a difference if we're able to and I don't want to put the cart before the horse here, but if you're able to provide before and after school daycare, I think you're going to see that change our bus numbers too because now a parent has the ability to drop their child off at school and them them to be taken care of right there at school and then pick them up, but they can work it around their work. I want I want to speak to that because some of the parents I'm hearing from say tell me that doesn't solve their problem. Yeah.

101Because what we're talking about is still offering a service that they have to pay for before and after school care. And some of these parents are saying, "I need school to start and end at a certain time because I can't afford child care." So just because we offer child care, that wouldn't necessarily um solve the problem for some of the people that I'm hearing from. So no, I agree. You know, if if it is a paid service, it is contracted service. So if you're struggling to to pay for for child care, right, then that doesn't solve your problem. But, you know, I think hopefully we can solve their problem in another way. Maybe we can fix the bus situation so they can feel confident in that. I mean, I just, for example, I spoke to

102a mother who said um that if she worked, she didn't make enough to pay for child care. So, it made more sense for her to quit working and now if she goes back to work, the the numbers just you almost lose money because child care is more than you make. The numbers don't add up for her. So, it makes more sense for her to stay out of work. But, child care gets tricky with that sort of stuff. So, um, it's I've said this many times before, I think we want simple answers to complex questions, and I I think we just have to be in it for the long haul to figure it out. And I appreciate what you're doing. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Oh, thank you all very much. Thank you, Miss Coulson. Are there

103any um citizen comments on this? No citizen comments. Are there any board member comments? Any additional board member comments? Okay. Any comments? Student representative. Any comments? Well, I would just like to say again that I am so happy that Dimwy High School got to present today and showcase our highlights. With the year coming to an end and with this being my final year with Dimwy, it's just really nice to see how far that we have come and how much that we are growing each year in accomplishments and scoring for tests and just just a various amount of things. We're always growing and we're always getting bigger and doing bigger and better things. and it's just so nice to see and be able to showcase because the high school really is a great place to be.

104I would also like to say congratulations to culinary for their accreditation. That is a really really big thing and I know that all of those students are really passionate about what they do and they really work hard and do a great job with what they do with culinary as well. when it came to the CTE presentation that was very good and I do also want to highlight the importance of CTE I would definitely encourage students to incorporate themselves with CTE even if it's a little bit because even if they choose not to pursue something in the CTE field it's still important to have those soft skills to know how to basically sell yourself to know how to present yourself to companies and businesses is and even if a student doesn't plan to work under a

105business and they plan to be an entrepreneur, it's just important to be able to sell that and sell their business or their idea in general. So, I would definitely definitely want to highlight CTE. Thank you again to all of the students and the staff who helped with the presentation. Thank you, Mr. Garn for the opportunity to be able to make this presentation and put everything together cuz I would definitely say that it's a great thing. And I wanted to end with when it comes to the staggered bell schedules at least from a students perspective and just a student representatives perspective listening to the conversation and seeing what it is. One thing that I would definitely say is this year I've done two things. I have attended the government's day with some other seniors and we

106practice proposals and trying to divide up how can we make things work for the different people who are trying to either get a thing going on in the community or get money. And we also did a similar thing with the DELA program where we are learning about grants and then just learning how to distribute that money to different people who are trying to get those proposals and figure that out. And the biggest thing that we're learning is that you just cannot appeal to everyone and that's okay. But what I would say is that it is important to just focus on that majority but also as a community itself. Denwitty is very resilient and I would definitely say that if we can start to look at ourselves and listen to one another and learn that okay

107this may not be working for you but this is also not working for me so how can we find that happy medium. I feel like that's where we're going to start to get answers and that's when things are going to start to work because either way whatever plan that we come up with is going to have its pros and cons. That's just life. So, I would definitely just say that when it comes down to making those decisions, even outside of this staggered bell schedule, it's just important to look at all side of things and sometimes kind of take yourself out of things and look at a holistic view. So, that's what I would say with that. That is unbelievable. Yes. Well, I would definitely say that uh Hermani touched on about everything that we talked

108about today very clearly, but just to go along with what she said, it was uh wonderful to brag about our teachers and our staff members and everything that our students are accomplishing throughout the school year. And I just uh I'd like to highlight how dedicated Mr. Walters is, Miss Clary is, the people who are working on the special education program. I mean, that just shows how dedicated our faculty members are to the success of our school and our community. And I just like to thank everyone for the hard work that they're putting in. And uh going along with our spring sporting events going coming up, I'm very excited for what it is to come within those sports. And I just thank Amani for everything she do with the presentation today. So, thank you. [Applause] Superintendent,

109you have um I have nothing to say after the I'm not going after the two of them. Absolutely not. I ditto everything they say. So I will need a motion to or do I need a motion to adjourn a regular board meeting and then we have a public hearing and then we go into the public hearing at six o'clock. I move that we adjourn the regular board meeting. Second. It has been moved and properly second that we adjourn the regular board meeting. All those in favor? I I. All right. The meeting is adjourned. Regular meeting is adjourned. We'll go into public hearing at 6:00. Second. It is moved and second that we reconvene for public hearing. All those in favor use the you sign. I the eyes. Now we will have a presentation of the

110FY 2026 school but school board button. Okay. Well, it looks like that we're going to have a little bit of a technology issue. So, if you don't mind, I guess following along um with the paper copy. Um I just will say Oh, there you go, Bonnie. Um, our technology team keeps us up to date all the time and so at the most unpromptive moment we have to do those updates. Um, but I just want to start by saying I know you've heard this budget. Um, I think it's this is like the fourth time you've heard it. Um, we have added um, all the rest of the funds that we have in our budget for this budget. Um, we will not be approving this this evening. This is just forformational purposes and for the public then

111to provide input um whether to you to us however they'd like to do that. We will be bringing it back to you on April the 22nd for you to approve. So much of what you're going to see here um at the beginning of this budget is um is information that you've already seen previously. Um as we talked about um this budget really is about not only managing the present for our young people but um creating the future. That was a cute picture of um Miss Bonnie's grandson uh Junior and he loves his granny. So um so he's here with us this evening as well. Um our vision and mission that's what drives all of the work that we do there on page second. Um the second excuse me the second page. Um when we started

112this budget process basically last fall um we did meet with a lot of stakeholders and we did narrow down to three um three uh areas of priorities for this particular budget cycle and that would be compensation of our employees, safety and security and capital projects. Um and so we're going to talk about those three areas and what we put inside this budget as we move through this presentation. The budget is as you know is built on our enrollment and as you can see there we have been seeing a slight decline over the past years. Um, so we have been very conservative in this budget um because we don't really know what's going to happen. Even though we did do an enrollment study and the enrollment study told us that our um they did feel like

113that our enrollment would stay relatively stable, but um we feel like we still need to remain pretty um we still need to be safe as possible when we're putting the budget together. So, I'd like to start by talking about the fiscal year 26 operating fund 205. Um, the governor's budget when he put the budget out in back in December. Um, we based our budget based on 3,975 students. We felt that that was the most conservative number. Uh, we probably could have gone a little bit lower than that based on where we're at currently. Um, but that's where we began. Um and what happened to that would be that um the governor's budget would show us a reduction in state funds at almost a million dollars. Well, that's not really where we want to be. It

114was a and put us in a very nervous place. Um but um but you can see there what happens and all has to do with our enrollment in the school system. There are some required um increases in our budget. Um there are some required salary increases. Um some inc required instructional academic supplements which you're aware of. Some required contract services for custodial and building maintenance and landscaping services and health services. Um we are going to be coming for you coming before you on April the 22nd to talk to you about our comprehensive plan which we're required to have an update every six years. Um so I'll be coming back um with that plan as well. and we have required health insurance increases. So, priority one is compensation. Um, and in the governor's budget, he did

115propose a 3% increase for all employees. Um, that c will cost us $1.4 million um to have in our budget this year. Um, um, and Bonnie, we're on um the slide that says priority one school year with about uh 500, excuse me, $500,000. Um, we think that there will be a total revenue of $62 million, total expenditures $62.5 million, and there'd be an ending balance, of course, always of zero. The last part of that, um, okay. Um, that's that's not what I have. Okay. Small capital project. Thank you. All right. Thank you. So, technology is somebody's taken over, I believe. Um so small capital projects um this is the priority three. Um so what we've asked the county for is to increase our small capital transfer from $150,000 to $300,000. Um as you remember this

116will allow us to um institute a fleet management plan. Uh it would allow us to do more small capital projects like um we have a painting schedule now for our schools and workplaces and do a lot of furniture replacement in our schools. um is primarily in our middle school um for this upcoming year. Okay. So, the county revenue needed for the small capital projects um total would be the $667,000 for the security system and adding that additional $150,000 for a total of $967,000. Okay. Now, just so you know that this school capital fund, this 302, uh, we project the beginning balance to be about $5.1 million. Now, a lot of these projects are already there. I will say to you that we participated yesterday in about a three and a half hour meeting with the

117capital improvement team at the county. Um, and no decisions have been made yet. As a matter of fact, um, the planning commission is meeting tomorrow evening. Um, and so they haven't made final decisions about, uh, what's going to be included in that plan. So, this number is likely to be changed somewhat as we get more information from that um planning commission as well as the board of supervisors, but this is where we stand as of this moment and based on the projects that we have submitted for the upcoming school year and we estimate an ending balance of $1.4 million. To just to remind you, here are some of the large capital projects which are subject to change as I said because they're still a work in progress. Um definitely we will be doing the dees

118exterior repair and um the roof. Um we're doing boiler replacements at u midway the middle school and dees uh key cards in our schools. Eventually all of our schools will have the key card system. Um parking lot paving. Um we've started that now at dees and we do have a plan now to get all of our schools done. Deferred maintenance projects at our schools and the annex roof. Um the annex really is a school. It's a building um that has really good bones to it. And as you know, the school system, some of you might know, um we we made a pretty hefty investment in that building about 10 years ago. Um new windows and an air conditioning system. So, we want to make certain that we um do things to preserve that building. So,

119there's a lot of good to be had in that building. Um and the maintenance team's over there working now to um get everything um cleaned up in there for us as well. um small capital, classroom furniture upgrades that I talked about, vehicle replacements, um any of our gym floors that need to be refinished, and painting of our our schools and classrooms. Here's another fund that we have. It's our textbook fund. Uh this is a fund that can be rolled over from year to year. Um it's used for consumables, for eexbooks, any adoptions that we have to have or software that's associated with textbooks and curriculum. Uh we'll start we project to start the year with $1.5 million. Um we'll transfer about close to $200,000 from the school fund. We expect to receive almost $500,000 from

120the state revenue. Um we'll have about $1.3 million in expenditures and have an ending balance of $800,000. And as I said, this is rolled over from year to year. Dr. Wesley, a question on the annex roof. Yes. Is the county sort of kind of helping with any of Yes, the county the county actually had that under their um part of their proposal as well uh because u a lot of what's in there currently are the uh resources for the community um and so they partnered with us in that endeavors. Thank you for asking that. Okay. So, school nutrition fund. Uh we project to start the school year with um $600,000 in that fund. Um we expect revenue at almost $3 million expenditures at $3.4 million and we would end with $145,000. Uh this includes all

121of our federal, state, and local funding and and what she uses this fun fooding for. Food what she you can tell it's dinner time. what she uses this fooding for what she uses this for is food supplies repair and maintenance. This is one of the funds right now that we've been submitting a request to find out what's happening with USDA funding. Um because this is a really big deal for us like what's going to happen with this for kids. Um especially for us because all of our kids receive you know breakfast and lunch. All right. So now we're going to go on to talk a little bit about our grants. Um, okay. I'm going to try not to look up there. I'm just going to keep talking on because if you blink it goes on

122and off. Yes. Okay. Um, so so the beginning So the beginning balance of our uh fund 303 for our school grants. Now these are you heard about a couple of them tonight. You heard about um you heard about the grant title six and title six. You talked about title 6b. Um, did she talk about preschool um, special education tonight? I don't think she did. I think she just did. You just I didn't I think she only talked six I think she only talked about 6B. Okay. So um so just so you know um that we expect to start the school year with um $938,000 there transferring 392,000 from the school fund. We rece we expect to see $4.3 million in these school these um these grant funds. Um and the top the ones at the

123top are federal grant funds and the ones at the bottom are state funded grants. Okay. And so the ones we would be worried about I told you title two. Um, we talked about it today briefly about making certain we we don't have people in title two, which is a good thing because that's where I start getting nervous where you because you saw when M Mary was presenting her budget, the budget, the uh title 6B2, and she was talking a lot about the people that are in there, I get nervous about that because we got to find a place for them if the grant goes away. Um, so the federal grants, it looks like all of them are safe for now. Um, title two might be the only one, but as Miss Pitman has reminded us

124previously, we've talked about that. I think there have been other years when they've talked about title two maybe not being a grant that they would give to us. Um, total expenditures $5.4 million with an ending balance next year of $149,000. The good news about grants, too, is typically they're like forward funding. So, it's almost like we're always a year behind, you know? So we're always working in the You're always working in the year um that's beh um year that's behind you. Yeah. So you 27 months that spend it. Yeah. So you have a long time to spend the money. So you you Yeah. So I think we're in a pretty good shape right in this moment, but you know, everybody's heightened. Um they're a little bit worried in this moment. And I think that I

125think some clarity will come from all of it. I'm optimistic. All right. um the debt service. Uh this is where like um still Southerntherland and the high school are still funded. So any of any projects that we've had uh funded but through the county uh this is the money that the county pays on our behalf. Um so we're projecting um $2.7 million at the beginning of the year with a revenue being 3.8 with an ending balance of $3.2 million at the end of the school year. So, um, for a summary of all the funds, there would be a beginning balance of $1.3 million. We would expect to see revenue of $78 million for this upcoming school year, total expenditures of 83.7 um million and then an ending balance of 5.7. most of that is capital

126projects and it will be very different depending upon what project they decide to fund for us and we have several that are on the list uh for this year and there was a lot of discussion uh I will tell you that one of the things that's happening with regard to the capital projects is that um the courthouse needs to be renovated. Um and my understanding is that a judge can um come in to direct you to um renovate the courthouse. Um and there right now they have preliminary estimates that would cost somewhere around um what is $11 million to do the renovations. Um they won't know until August what the actual number is. Um, but that unfortunately makes all the rest of us that have put in projects um because they're going to need to

127do a borrow in order to take care of the courthouse um we met with Davenport yesterday and we really don't have the capacity as a community to do a larger borrow than $1520 million. So, it's we're limited and we're competing also uh with things like public safety for fire trucks and you know the like and Miss Pitman, you'll remember that from all the times we've sat on these CIP meetings. So, that mean they'll take our I mean, if this five million go to us, they would take it. Well, it means that they would probably we'd have probably have to move some of our projects to uh other years um because it looks like in um in fiscal year 29 is when it will free up some money to do some larger projects for us. So,

128that's what we're trying to figure out right now and we've prioritized some things for them. They are going to do our buses so that we know that's a given. Um you know, our priority right now is the middle school. Um, and so we've given them some different FA, you know, phases and ideas about that. I talked to Mr. Massenill this morning just to tell him, look, I mean, you know, we just want we just need things to be done. We understand that your your hands are tied when it comes to the courthouse. I mean, you know, I I just I don't understand it, but new building. Well, it seems like it's new, but when you go inside of it, I think they they've had some water damage inside. Um, and then so there's a lot

129of um I think the when how they built it was not built properly and so they thought they were going to be there go in there and do like a million or two $2 million worth of renovation and it looks like it's going to be like $11 million plus project. Yeah. Yeah. It's 20 years old. Yeah. 20. So um so we're competing with that. And then of course um when you have fire and EMS um vehicles, you have to order now to get them here in three years. So you you got to order it now. You can't wait because every year you pushed it out, it's another three years. And you know, and I'm you know, I'm like you all. When I call 911, I want them to show up like you know and want

130to make sure they come. So it's just really difficult. It's hard to prioritize. um you know and we just talked about things that are important also to people. Parks and wrecks are important um but that gets pushed down further and further as well for our community. So I I feel in in the long run we're going to come out with the right thing. It's just um whether or not we're going to be able to have the projects done this year that we think. Um but at this point I really need the the county's support and those other areas we talked about compensation, safety and security and some of the smaller capital projects. So, if they can help us with those, I think we'll be in a good good place. So, all right. And this is

131a just a graphic of the all of um our total revenues for fiscal year 26. Um 79% of the overall budget is in school operating. Less than 1% is going to be textbook funds. Uh 3.8% is school nutrition. um that that budget runs um in separate from our budget but just showing it here in um as it relates to the others. Grants is about 6% of our budget and then 5.1% will be capital projects and then debt service is about 5% as well. And then here's our expenditures. 75% will be in school operating and then 1.6% in a textbook. 4% in school nutrition, 6.5% in grants, 9% in capital projects, and 4% in debt service. Okay. So, our next steps will be that um the public hearing is today. Um and it can happen really

132from this day forward. If people have any comments that they'd like to make or any thoughts about the the budget, um we will be coming back to you on April the 20 April the 22nd for approval. um because we do need to have it approved this month and then it'll be moving forward for county approval and it could require us to come back and change some things based on what the county does ultimately decide to do but we're working very closely with them and I just would say thank you. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have and Christiey's here as well. Um she has specifics if there's something you want to know more specific she has all of our notes and notebooks as well. Uh yeah, let's ask after this. We talking about

133that 22nd versus 29th. Is there a meeting on the 29th as well? It's the 22nd 29th. Oh, okay. It's the 22nd. There's five. Yeah, there's just five Tuesdays. So, it's the 22nd. Well, I mean, I I know that we I know that it's a balancing game for the county and I know that um you know, everybody has needs, but this quote right here from James Frickus says it all with where you spend your money. And when I look at the big picture of a 11 million to renovate a courthouse, I'm sorry that priorities are Yeah, it's interesting. I I asked him I I said, you know, certainly I'm not questioning it. I but I do I don't understand how count how judges can just come in and say you have to do this. And to

134me it's like shouldn't they have to they though? Yeah. Um yes, he did come to see Mr. Massenuel. Okay. And I I talked to Kevin about that, Mr. Massel. And my understanding is that they've had to close the courthouse several times because of water damage. Mhm. And so because of that, one of the judge stepped in and said, "I want this fixed." And it's led to more. Um, that doesn't help us though. Right. So, and I will tell you I had to go over for a u you know case in one of our cases and you know it it is they've not done anything inside of that building and I did come back at that time and said you we need some stuff because the furniture is not in good shape and all but then

135when they've had this water damage you know what water does to you know but to just go from a one million like one I think I'm gonna spend one million to now I'm going to spend over 11 million is a big jump. Dr. Weston, the um a big part of the budget obviously is based on enrollment. Yes. And you you guys are using the 3975. That's correct. What are we ending? Do do you know what our numbers are going to be to end this year? I do not, but I think it's around 3940. It's low right now. I think it's going to be somewhere between 3950 and 3975. Um I know they're working on the report. It's It's due to um I think this the state April 20 April 15th maybe. Um right. Yeah. So

136we'll we should know that soon. So are we going to like have a shortfall this year because of that? We are like we have to make up for that. We're going to have to pay back. How does that how does that work? Oh no. We don't have to pay back. How how does that work? I told you this stuff is over my head sometimes. So um good afternoon. Um no sir what happens is the state will only send us the revenue you know they send us our revenue monthly and so what happens is in June they shore up anything in May and June based on this the the report that's due in April. It's based on your March 31st ADM. So we've completed our last you know day that we can you know get that.

137And of course, we came to you back in the fall and um based on the positions that were not filled or were filled with a long-term sub versus a contracted employee, thankfully we are able to um cover the whatever shortfall that that may be for the existing year um with with this budget year. So we fairly confident about that number now though 3975 for next year. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's no way to I know it's I think, you know, when we get our our our actual number for this year, we can always come back and say, you know, we we think like we feel like we may need to make an adjustment. When do we start kindergarten enrollment? We started kindergarten and prek um registration February. Yeah. Is that I mean, is it too

138early to ask if that's up or down right now or it is too way too early. Okay. So yeah. Okay. Yeah. So um how big's the graduating class? 300 about 330 kids. It's it's a normal size one. Not a great big one, but the one coming behind the ones coming behind it are smaller. Smaller. [Music] Yeah. So when we when we present the budget for adoption, we can certainly talk. I mean, we'll have a a more updated um ADM and we can certainly talk about that if we need to. Yeah. And hopefully we'll know more from the county by then as well and the state and the state because once again the governor, you know, what happened is that he pushed it back because he he did not approve the support cap being lifted. He

139only said part of it could be lifted. So that would say that we need, you know, it's not the full $1.5 million we need, but we think it's still around $1 million we would need to have. So when he pushed it back out to the um general assembly, they pushed it immediately back to him. Like they weren't even going to reconsider it. Like they said, "This is what we want. We want you to lift the support cap." And so now he's got it on his desk until May 2nd. So they're just pushing back and forth right in this moment. They know when school starts, right? Yes. Well, he's done it's happened before. It's been very It's been later. I know it's hard to do what you're supposed to do and hire and yeah, you know,

140when we're figuring all this out. So, this is just forformational purposes this evening, but if you think of things in the next couple of weeks that you'd like us to consider or to put in the budget, we're happy to do that. Okay. Thank you, Miss Benjamin. Thank you. Thank you for the information. Madam Chair, I move that we adjourn from the budget hearing. Second that we from the public hearing. All those in favor? accept meeting.